High school is simply defined as, "a school that typically comprises of grades 9 through 12, attended after primary school or middle school." - That's all google says. My high school career was far from simple. 7 hours of each week day I attended my classes. Typically I was in accelerated honors classes where I felt like I always needed to compare myself to others around me. I received exceptional grades and finished 10th in my class. But that was only one aspect of high school. Out of the classroom I spent more than 7 hours each day preparing for my extra-curricular activities - drama, student government, tennis, honor societies, and yearbook.
Now I could go on and on about all the activities I did, or hours I spent studying for tests that I immediately forgot what I studied after the test, however, I would much rather explain to you the moments in between those. The moments that I didn't chose, but instead chose me.
I vividly remember one night, it does not sum up my last 4 years, however, it was one of the moments I felt pure bliss - the night before my classes' last pep rally senior year. It has now become a ritual to decorate the outside of our school in our class color the night before your last pep rally at West Warwick and our whole class had agreed to continue the tradition. Now something you should know about my class - we weren't a very "together" type of class. There were various friend groups that always separated from one another, there was never a time we all gathered together, unless it was mandatory. However, this night, we all made a choice.
We planned to arrive at the school at 2 in the morning and all bring something in the color of red: paint, streamers, stickers, rope, tape, table cloth, clothes, balloons, cups, forks - anything red, you name it and we had it. We all met in the back soccer field; I saw faces come out who I hadn't really seen since freshmen year: the girl I had been best friends with since I was born up until high school started, the boy I had my heart broken by freshmen year, the girl he broke my heart with, the chess club I had never actually conversed with, and so many more. And those people saw their people they haven't seen in years, and so on. We all broke into the high school and chaos enveloped. Streamers were flown, lockers were taped, desks were flipped, and laughter filled the air.
As being my class president, I had many decisions over the past 4 years that impacted my class. And I had gotten the opinion of many with digital surveys and asking the opinions of students in similar classes, however, to actually visually see my class outside of school, but inside of school - that was inspiring. They all made the effort to come out at 2 in the morning for whatever their reason was. Some of them wouldn't even get up to come to school at 7 am every day!
Now whenever I seem to tell someone about this night, their response is often, "Well what were your responsibilities for this night? As president, did you tape lockers shut as well?" Yes, I do realize that there were other ways I could make my fellow students all spend time together; maybe assigning a mandatory pep rally. However, I didn't want to make them do anything, I wanted them to want to be with one another.
Ironically, we did not receive any punishments for this night, other than having to clean up the whole school. Actually, cleaning up what we had destroyed was probably my favorite part of the whole 24 hours. On every senior's face, you could see how reality was sinking it - this was it. With graduation just weeks ahead we had wanted to leave a mark on little West Warwick High School, and that we did. However, it was now time to clean up and move on.
That day I felt a certain connection with not only my classmates, but with West Warwick. Although it is sad that our class had finally got extremely close within weeks of graduation, that night will forever mean more to me than just one night of high school.
To be a part of those other 200 students for one night truly made those 4 years all worth it. I've never been so proud of something in my life more than I was in this moment.
Now I could go on and on about all the activities I did, or hours I spent studying for tests that I immediately forgot what I studied after the test, however, I would much rather explain to you the moments in between those. The moments that I didn't chose, but instead chose me.
I vividly remember one night, it does not sum up my last 4 years, however, it was one of the moments I felt pure bliss - the night before my classes' last pep rally senior year. It has now become a ritual to decorate the outside of our school in our class color the night before your last pep rally at West Warwick and our whole class had agreed to continue the tradition. Now something you should know about my class - we weren't a very "together" type of class. There were various friend groups that always separated from one another, there was never a time we all gathered together, unless it was mandatory. However, this night, we all made a choice.
We planned to arrive at the school at 2 in the morning and all bring something in the color of red: paint, streamers, stickers, rope, tape, table cloth, clothes, balloons, cups, forks - anything red, you name it and we had it. We all met in the back soccer field; I saw faces come out who I hadn't really seen since freshmen year: the girl I had been best friends with since I was born up until high school started, the boy I had my heart broken by freshmen year, the girl he broke my heart with, the chess club I had never actually conversed with, and so many more. And those people saw their people they haven't seen in years, and so on. We all broke into the high school and chaos enveloped. Streamers were flown, lockers were taped, desks were flipped, and laughter filled the air.
As being my class president, I had many decisions over the past 4 years that impacted my class. And I had gotten the opinion of many with digital surveys and asking the opinions of students in similar classes, however, to actually visually see my class outside of school, but inside of school - that was inspiring. They all made the effort to come out at 2 in the morning for whatever their reason was. Some of them wouldn't even get up to come to school at 7 am every day!
Now whenever I seem to tell someone about this night, their response is often, "Well what were your responsibilities for this night? As president, did you tape lockers shut as well?" Yes, I do realize that there were other ways I could make my fellow students all spend time together; maybe assigning a mandatory pep rally. However, I didn't want to make them do anything, I wanted them to want to be with one another.
Ironically, we did not receive any punishments for this night, other than having to clean up the whole school. Actually, cleaning up what we had destroyed was probably my favorite part of the whole 24 hours. On every senior's face, you could see how reality was sinking it - this was it. With graduation just weeks ahead we had wanted to leave a mark on little West Warwick High School, and that we did. However, it was now time to clean up and move on.
That day I felt a certain connection with not only my classmates, but with West Warwick. Although it is sad that our class had finally got extremely close within weeks of graduation, that night will forever mean more to me than just one night of high school.
To be a part of those other 200 students for one night truly made those 4 years all worth it. I've never been so proud of something in my life more than I was in this moment.